S. Korea To Provide Humanitarian Aid To Yemen

5/22/2012 3:22 AM ET

South Korea plans to provide $500,000 in humanitarian aid to Yemen to help ward off a worsening food crisis in the impoverished Arab country, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

A delegation of South Korean government officials will attend the second "Friends of Yemen" meeting in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Wednesday and unveil the aid package, Ministry spokesman Cho Byung-jae told reporters.

Yemen's economy has been badly affected following an year-long uprising that led to the ouster of longtime ruler Ali Abdullah Saleh and simmering fighting between government forces and militants linked to the global terror outfit al-Qaeda.

"Our government will actively participate in discussions on the support and development of the Yemeni economy as one of the responsible members of the international society," Cho was quoted by the Yonhap news agency as saying.

More than 90 soldiers were killed on Monday in the Yemeni capital Sanaa when a suicide attacker detonated his explosives in the midst of a military parade rehearsal. The al-Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the attack that has drawn immediate condemnations from the U.N. Security Council.